Gophers hockey: Upstart opponent Robert Morris revives its season

Robert Morris hopes to become this year's Holy Cross or Yale, teams that have upset the Gophers in the first round of an NCAA tournament. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

The small Pennsylvania school of Robert Morris was 2-12-2 through December; it looked like its hockey season had gone up in smoke.

But to start the new year, coach Derek Schooley had his players write down their regrets, failures and faults. Coaches gathered a copy of the season's results and a tournament poster.

"We went outside and literally burned it," Schooley said. "It was almost a ceremonial ending of last year."

The Colonials went 17-5-3 in 2014 and won three elimination games en route to the Atlantic Hockey Association tournament title.

The Colonials (19-17-5) earned the first NCAA tournament appearance in school history and want to make it a fiery finish for the Gophers in their NCAA West Regional semifinal matchup Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center.

Robert Morris hopes to become this year's Holy Cross or Yale, teams that have upset the Gophers in the first round of an NCAA tournament. Holy Cross stunned the Gophers 4-3 in 2006; Yale beat Minnesota 3-2 in overtime en route to last year's national championship.

Coach Don Lucia said the resume and name of the opponent doesn't matter for his top-seeded Gophers (25-6-6).

"The name is irrelevant," Lucia said. "We are preparing to play an NCAA-caliber team. They've earned the right to be here."

Junior forward Cody Wydo has 30 goals and 52 points to lead the Colonials offense, which ranks sixth in the nation with an average of 3.46 goals per game.

"We better be aware that they have a 30-goal scorer," Lucia said.

Advertisement

"I don't care what league you play in. If you score 30 goals, that's a good habit to have. They've scored a ton of goals in the second half of the year."

Robert Morris, which has an enrollment of about 5,400 students on its suburban Pittsburgh campus, lost its starting goalie Terry Shafer to injury during a playoff elimination playoff game against Army on March 9. The Colonials turned to little-used Dalton Izyk.

"I got the question after we won, 'How do you assess his play?' He's won," Schooley said. "He's won a championship; he's 5-0 in the playoffs. You can't ask for more from a freshman that has only played four or five games in the regular season."

While the Colonials were cruising, the Gophers lost 3-1 to Ohio State in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament on March 21.

"I don't know if it's more focused, but that loss took us back pretty far; kind of back to Earth that we can lose any game," Gophers winger Nate Condon said. "I don't know if we're hungrier for an NCAA title -- it's what you come into the season for -- but we're definitely ready to go."

Last year's loss to Yale left a sour taste.

"We don't want to be one-and-done again," Gophers center Kyle Rau said. "It sucked last year, and I think all the returning guys know how bad it felt in not making it to a Frozen Four."

The winner of the Gophers-Robert Morris game will play St. Cloud State or Notre Dame at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in the West Regional championship game. A berth in the Frozen Four awaits the winner of that game.